Dozens of Rise Up for Rojava activists tied up themselves in chains in front of the Rheinmetall Italia Headquarters gate in protest at the planned shipment of military equipment to Turkey.

The activists said: “It is really shameful that Italy continues to export weapons to Ankara, thus legitimizing and fueling Turkey’s outrageous attack on northern Syria, causing the death and injury of hundreds of civilians and the beginning of an actual humanitarian emergency with 300,000 men, women and children fleeing. We demand that the Italian government, beyond the sterile formal statements, immediately uses all necessary means to stop the export of weapons to Turkey, including those already produced and in stock. It is truly beyond understanding that a possible embargo only concerns future orders and shipments, leaving in the meantime that Italian-made weapons keep killing innocent civilians. The automatic cannon Oerlikon, that has a rate of fire of 600rpm, is part of a 12-cannon order (9 of which already delivered) made in 2016 by Aselsan Elektonic, Ankara’s army supplier.

We cannot accept that, in the first semester of 2019, aircraft components and devices 124 million euros worth, have already been sent from Rome’s province directly to Turkey, as reported by Rete Disarmo (Disarmament Network).”

Activists supporting the “Rise Up for Rojava” campaign, are urging to keep a high level of attention on this topic, hoping for this blitz to be only the first of a number of actions that could involve and inspirit the entire country in the next few days, with the aim of obtaining the full block of weapons’ exportation to Turkey.

“We invite local organizations to give tangible support to the Kurdish people’s fight by reporting all sites where weapons are produced and that could dramatically contribute to the massacre in Rojava. Moreover, we ask workers in logistics and production departments to actively oppose the shipment of war machinery to Ankara. If the Italian government does not have the courage to stop weapons exportation, we will prove that there are hundreds of men and women ready to enact a people’s mass embargo.”